Pretty Lady
by Rozewater
Summary: Little Hugy wants someone to play with, and the pretty lady down the street is his only company. Set a few years before Jack comes to Forget-Me-Not Valley. -OLD-


OOC: This oneshot was made in responce to a challenge: write a fic in where one of the village children has a crush on one of the older characters. Intresting topic...and then I started thinking... Before Jack came to Forget-Me-Not Valley and Kate moved in the second year, little Hugh and Lumina must have been the only children in the Valley. How lonely! So this is based a few years before Jack moves in to the farm, and Hugh is much younger and looking for a playmate.

* * *

She's a pretty lady.

I've thought so for a big, long time. She has the pretty yellow thing in her hair and the shiny orange sweater tied 'round her neck. She lives in the big house with the gate as tall as an elephant 'round it. She'll walk outta the house a lot though, 'cause she's always sad 'bout stuff. I hear yellin' sometimes when I walk by in the mornin', and then she comes out the door stomping like the elephant in the book Momma reads me. She's always thinkin' when she's walkin' 'round, stomping too. I know 'cause she'll sometimes bang into stuff 'cause she's not lookin' ahead right.

I laugh 'cause it's funny. Then she always waves her finger at me and says, "Hughy, don't laugh when people get hurt." Or somethin' like that. I'm not sure exactly what she says, 'cause by the time she sees me laughin' I'm running and off as fast as a rocketship. 'Cause I'm the fastest boy in the whole big town. Dadda always says to me, "Hughy, you're going to be the fastest boy in the whole world someday. With all that running around you do, you must have some endurance." Now I doesn't really know what "endurance" means, but I think its something you get when you get grown up, so I'm happy.

But I'm glad that I's got "endurance", 'cause if I has it and that means I'm a grown up, maybe the pretty lady will want to play with me more. 'Cause whenever I try to talk to her now when she's leaving the big house, she just says, "Hughy, I can't play right now. I'm dealing with grown up things." Then I told the pretty lady that I understand a lot of grown up things 'cause I gots endurance. And even before my Dadda told me that, my Momma always told me that I was a smart little boy. But she just always gives this little smile that doesn't really look happy though and says "Shoo, shoo" so I leave.

Then I make a sad face but then I zoom off like a racecar and I make _vrum VRUM!_ noises and then I forget that I was sad.

Momma always tells me when we're eatin' dinner that I shouldn't try to play with the pretty lady so much 'cause, "Miss Lumina is a big girl, and big girl's don't usually like to play with little boys."

But then I tell Momma that I'm a big boy now though and that I gots my endurance so I can play with the pretty lady.

And then Momma and Dadda look at each other. And then they get a smile and they laugh and I'm not so sure why they'd be laughin' cause I didn't make a funny. And then when I ask Momma why her and Dadda be laughin' she just says, "The pretty lady? Is that what you call Lumina?" And then they laughs even harder.

Then I start to get angry 'cause she is a pretty lady, but all their laughin' is making my tummy hurt and my throat all tight. Then I shout that it's not funny even though I don't really know what the funny was.

Then they get quieter and Dadda says, "Sorry Hughy," and Momma says, "Don't get flustered, lovebug…". But they keep givin' each other the smiles like they had when they's were laughin' so I still feel sad and want to shout.

But later I go to my bed 'cause it's bedtime and Momma always says, "Little boys need to get a lot of good sleep to become big boys," and I know I gotted my endurance but I want to be a big boy even sooner. So I go to bed and close my eyes real tight and wonder how long it's gonna be 'till the sun's makes it morning again. But then, after a long time, everything gets real weird and my thinkings get hard to think about and I start wantin' not to move as much.

But then my last thinking before everything goes all black is that tomorrow I'll finally get the pretty lady to play with me. 'Cause I'll try to make the same funny I made at dinner. Maybe that'll make her happy and make a smile that don't look sad.


End file.
